


That Horrible Picture

by RobberBaroness



Series: Quickie Crossovers [2]
Category: Hannibal (TV), The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Gen, Hannibal is a terrible person, Unrequited Crush
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-02
Updated: 2018-07-02
Packaged: 2019-06-01 03:04:10
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 293
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15133700
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RobberBaroness/pseuds/RobberBaroness
Summary: Hannibal receives an unwanted present.





	That Horrible Picture

**Author's Note:**

> Prompted by tumblr user picture-of-dorian-gray

Basil Hallward hadn’t meant the painting as an insult, Hannibal was sure of that, but nevertheless the sight of the man had started to grate at him. Even so, Basil loved him, and Hannibal loved being the object of others’ affection, so Basil’s life did not yet have a definite end date. Basil did not know what the painting in Hannibal’s attic looked like, because the one he had painted had been quite flattering.

Some sort of superstition kept Hannibal from burning the damn thing, and he visited it every so often as if prodding at an open wound. If the picture had simply shown an expression of smug self-righteous cruelty he would have hung it in his parlor, but the picture was ugly and that was infinitely worse. It was so bloated and slovenly, it looked like nothing so much as the inbred scion of some medieval family kept locked away to avoid embarassing his more civilized brothers.

It was not a face that anyone would love. It was not a face that anyone would even find particularly interesting.

The real reason Basil Hallward still lived was that Hannibal knew that to kill him would mean showing him the portrait. He would have to drag him up to see what he had done, to know why he was dying, and that would mean Basil would have to see that ugly thing, that deformity, and then turn to look back at the former object of his affection with pitying disgust.

Every visit to the painting was harder than the last, and a definite idea had started to form in Hannibal’s head: the urge to rip into the canvas and devour it. One of these days, he wasn’t going to be able to resist.


End file.
